Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has conducted an assessment of the potential effect of reductions in housing payments for asylum seekers.

Asylum seekers are not provided with payments to cover their housing costs. If they are destitute and do not have adequate accommodation they are provided with free, furnished accommodation by the Home Office. Utility bills are also covered by the Home Office and a cash allowance is provided to cover their other essential living needs, including food, clothes and toiletries. The level of the allowance, currently set at £36.95 per week, is reviewed each year to ensure that it is adequate.